can't believe with all this measured argument, we haven't heard more about how bad Mike Tindall is.
the lesson is this - if you are a good player you get away with anything (george best in football - Dagg and Jane in the RWC ). If on the other hand you are a one-dimensional, anachronism, with all the dynamism of a boulder then sorry Mike, you get hammered by the media and the RFU and your international career FINALLY comes to an end way after it should have.
he's a nice guy though and quite amusing so i'm sure he'll have a decent tv career to fall back on!

i also really cannot believe that after previous trips to NZ, the England team haven't learnt to send one sober guy out with the team to chaperone them if they insist on going to bars and nightclubs and getting wasted. soooo simple.

BK - if you are going to repeatedly say things like 'the letter of the law' then it would be wise to actually read the irb laws and not quote made up ones.
well done boomtown for finally mentioning the key point - 'attempt to grasp'. This IS the letter of the law. All this talk of 'wrapping' is totally irrelevant as there is no requirement within the laws to 'wrap' or 'attempt to wrap' the arms during a tackle - this is just what commentators and pundits have fooled people into thinking.
In this case, Lawes clearly hits hard with his left clavicle (i use the anatomically correct term for the underlying bone that he makes contact with as shoulder is too generic). Lawes left arm is flung forward more by momentum than anything else. this on its own would be illegal as there is no 'attempt to grasp' with the left hand. However, i believe his right hand makes this tackle legal as there is an 'attempt to grasp' here. view the video from 0.44 - 0.50 seconds and you can see this clearly. Indeed his right hand remains in contact with the player and therefore i would even go so far as to say that he has more than 'attempted to grasp' and has successfully 'grasped'.

sadly lawes has some great physical attributes but suffers from pierre spies syndrome - he makes a couple of big tackles per game and then goes missing for long periods. Pierre has managed to cure himself and now has a much better work rate so it's possible but Lawes wont be anywhere near international class until he literally doubles his work rate to match the likes of brad thorn, lionel nallet, james horwill and even luke charteris more recently.